This table provides metadata for the actual indicator available from United States statistics closest to the corresponding global SDG indicator. Please note that even when the global SDG indicator is fully available from American statistics, this table should be consulted for information on national methodology and other American-specific metadata information.

Comment and limitations

The USG SDG 8 Subgroup has not identifed a data source for this indicator.
Date metadata updated

2017-10-20

This table provides information on metadata for SDG indicators as defined by the UN Statistical Commission. Complete global metadata is provided by the UN Statistics Division.

Indicator

Indicator 8.7.1: Proportion and number of children aged 5–17 years engaged in child labour, by sex and age
Target

Target 8.7: Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms
Organisation

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

International Labour Organization (ILO)
Definition and concepts

Definition:

The number of children engaged in child labour corresponds to the number of children reported to be in child labour during the reference period (usually the week prior to the survey). The proportion of children in child labour is calculated as the number of children in child labour divided by the total number of children in the population. For the purposes of this indicator, children include all persons aged 5 to 17.

Concepts:

Three principal international legal instruments – ILO Convention No. 138 (Minimum Age) (C138), United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), ILO Convention No. 182 (Worst Forms) (C182) together set the legal boundaries for child labour, and provide the legal basis for national and international actions against it. In accordance with these instruments, child labour is work that children should not be doing because (a) they are too young or (b) is likely to harm their health, safety or morals, due to its nature or the conditions in which it is carried out.

The resolutions adopted by the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS), the world’s acknowledged standard-setting body in the area of labour statistics, provide the basis for translating the legal standards governing the concept of child labour into statistical terms for the purpose of child labour measurement.

In accordance with the ICLS resolutions[1], child labour can be measured on the basis of the production boundary set by the United Nations System of National Accounts (UN SNA) or on the basis of the general production boundary. The former limits the frame of reference to economic activity, while the latter extends it to include both economic activity and unpaid household services, that is, the production of domestic and personal services by a household member for consumption within their own household, commonly called “household chores”.

Following from this, two indicators are used for measuring child labour for the purpose of SDG reporting, the first based on the production boundary set by the UN SNA and the second based on the general production boundary.

Indicator 1: Proportion and number of children aged 5-17 years engaged in economic activities at or above age-specific hourly thresholds (SNA production boundary basis)

Child labour for the 5 to 11 age range: children working for 1 hour or more per week in economic activity;

Child labour for the 12 to 14 age range: children working for 14 hours or more per week in economic activity;

Child labour for the 15 to 17 age range: children working for 43 hours or more per week in economic activity.

Indicator 2: Proportion and number of children aged 5-17 years engaged in economic activities and household chores at or above age-specific hourly thresholds (general production boundary basis):

Child labour for the 5 to 11 age range: children working for 1 hour or more per week in economic activity and/or involved in unpaid household services for 21 hours or more per week;

Child labour for the 12 to 14 age range: children working for 14 hours or more per week in economic activity and/or involved in unpaid household services for 21 hours or more per week;

Child labour for the 15 to 17 age range: children working for 43 hours or more per week in economic activity.[2]

The concept of child labour also includes the worst forms of child labour other than hazardous (18th ICLS paragraphs 33 to 34) as well as hazardous work (18th ICLS paragraphs 21 to 32). The worst forms of child labour include all forms of slavery or similar practices such as trafficking and the recruitment and use of child soldiers, the use or procurement of children for prostitution or other illicit activities, and other work that is likely to harm children’s health, safety or well-being.

1

20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians. Resolution to amend the 18th ICLS Resolution concerning statistics of child labour. ILO. Geneva, October 2019. ↑

2

No hourly threshold is set for household chores for ages 15-17. ↑
Unit of measure

Percent (%)
Data sources

Household surveys such as National Labour Force Surveys, National Multipurpose Household Surveys, UNICEF-supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), ILO-supported Statistical Information and Monitoring Programme on Child Labour (SIMPOC), and World Bank Living Standard Measurement surveys (LSMS) are among the most important instruments for generating information on child labour in developing countries. Estimates of child labour generated by these survey instruments are increasingly relied on by countries to monitor progress towards national and global child labour elimination targets. Many countries also produce national labour estimates and reports that often include data on child labour and/or employment among children.

Data providers

National Statistical Offices (for the most part) and line ministries/other government agencies and International agencies that have conducted labour force surveys or other household surveys through which data on child labour were collected.

Comment and limitations

While the concept of child labour includes working in activities that are hazardous in nature, to ensure comparability of estimates over time and to minimize data quality issues, work beyond age-specific hourly thresholds are used as a proxy for hazardous work for the purpose of reporting on SDG indicator 8.7.1. Further methodological work is needed to validate questions specifically aimed at identifying children in hazardous working conditions.

Similarly, while the worst forms of child labour other than hazardous also form part of the concept of child labour more broadly, data on the worst forms of child labour are not currently captured in regular household surveys given difficulties with accurately and reliably measuring it. Therefore, this element of child labour is not captured by the indicators used for reporting on SDG 8.7.1.

In addition, ‘own use production of goods’, including activities such as fetching water and collecting firewood, falls within the production boundary set by the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA). However, for the purpose of SDG reporting of indicator 8.7.1, and with the goal of facilitating international comparability, fetching water and collecting firewood have been classified as unpaid household services (i.e., household chores), a form of production that lies outside the SNA production boundary.

More broadly, child labour estimates based on the statistical standards set out in the ICLS resolution represent useful benchmarks for international comparative purposes but are not necessarily consistent with estimates based on national child labour legislation. ILO Convention No. 138 contains a number of flexibility clauses left to the discretion of the competent national authority in consultation (where relevant) with workers’ and employers’ organizations (e.g., minimum ages, scope of application).[3] This means that there is no single legal definition of child labour across countries, and thus, no single statistical measure of child labour consistent with national legislation across countries.

3

Principal areas of flexibility in the Convention include: (a)minimum ages: Members whose economy and educational facilities are insufficiently developed may specify a lower general minimum age of 14 years (Art. 2.4) and a lower age range for light work of 12 to 14 years (Art 7.4); and (b) scope of application: Members may exclude from the application of the Convention limited (non-hazardous) categories of employment or work in respect of which special and substantial problems of application arise (Art. 4.1). Members whose economy and administrative facilities are insufficiently developed may also initially limit the scope of application of the Convention (Art. 5.1) beyond a core group of economic activities or undertakings (Art. 5.3). ↑
Method of computation

Children aged 5-17: Number of children aged 5-17 reported in child labour during the week prior to the survey divided by the total number of children aged 5-17 in the population, multiplied by 100.

Children aged 5-14: Number of children aged 5-14 reported in child labour during the week prior to the survey divided by the total number of children aged 5-14 in the population, multiplied by 100.

Children aged 15-17: Number of children aged 15-17 reported child labour during the week prior to the survey divided by the total number of children aged 15-17 in the population, multiplied by 100.

Metadata update

2024-07-29
International organisations(s) responsible for global monitoring

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

International Labour Organization (ILO)
Related indicators

Many other SDG indicators have links and are relevant to child labour.
UN designated tier

2
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